What are the key things that we believe about humanity? Well, we can sum up a Doctrine of Humanity as follows. Humans are created in God’s image, equally as male and female. They may be described as embodied spirits. They were made to worship God and to rule his creation. We of course will want to talk in systematic terms about fall and redemption but we will come onto that later.
Made in God’s Image
Genesis 1:26-27 says that God created humans in his image and likeness. Some theologians have sought to distinguish between the two as Bavinck notes.[1] As a result of this, whether or not we were granted both image and likeness at creation has been disputed. Some such as Origen have argued that:
“he only created him in his image, that is as a rational being in order man would acquire likeness with God in the way of obedience and receive it in the end as his reward from God’s hand.”[2]
Personally, I’m not persuaded of this distinction and consider it overstated. That we are made in God’s likeness suggests that in some way, there is a connection between his attributes and our characteristics. We know from our studies of the Doctrine of God that God is spirit, is simple, infinite, all powerful, eternal, present everywhere, unchanging, impassible etc.
Some of those things clearly cannot be said about humans. We are obviously not pure spirit and that means as material beings we are complex, made up of parts rather than simple. We cannot be in every place at the same time. Our knowledge is finite and our strength limited. We change as we grow and move through life and are passible (subject to our passions and emotions. Whilst we were made to live forever, we live in time and have a beginning so that we are not eternal. God is of course holy and blameless, without sin whereas post The Fall we are not. However, the original humans were created good, without evil.
However, whilst embodied, humans are identified as having spirits and are in that sense share a likeness to God. Additionally, we were made to live for ever and whilst we experience death, there is everlasting life, whether with God or in Hell to come. Humans are sentient beings made with the ability to inquire and know. As observed above, we are rational beings. We are also creative. That God made us to rule over creation that suggests a likeness to his creative power.
Another likeness is in terms of attributes such as love, mercy and compassion, wisdom and a concern for justice. Such attributes when applied to God are sometimes referred to as communicable attributes meaning that these are communicated or applied to us. However, it is helpful to think in terms of analogical similarities rather than univocal. Even in so far as we share qualities such as love and justice, these are imperfect and finite in our case.
However, when Scripture talks about being made in God’s image, it primarily seems to have in mind an ancient near easter idea. Kings and emperors would set up images of themselves in different locations to remind their subjects of their rule. Similarly, an ambassador might carry something such as a seal, representing the emperor’s authority. We bear God’s image as his representatives here, authorised to act on his behalf.
There is a further and crucial way in which we are made in God’s image. Bavinck pushes us further.
“In our treatment of the doctrine of the image of God, then we must highlight, in accordance with Scripture and the Reformed confession, the idea that a human being does not bear or have the image of God but that he or she is the image of God. As a human being a man is the son, the likeness or offspring of God. (Gen 1:26; 9:6 Luke 3:38; Acts 17:2; 1 Cor 11:7; James 3:9).
Bavinck is here following in the footsteps of a much older theologian, Athanasius who also explicitly links being made in God’s image to the Son.
He made all things out of nothing through His own Word, our Lord Jesus Christ and of all these His earthly creatures He reserved especial mercy for the race of men. Upon them, therefore, upon men who, as animals, were essentially impermanent, He bestowed a grace which other creatures lacked — namely the impress of His own Image, a share in the reasonable being of the very Word Himself, so that, reflecting Him and themselves becoming reasonable and expressing the Mind of God even as He does, though in limited degree they might continue for ever in the blessed and only true life of the saints in paradise.[3]
We are made through, The Word (Christ) and so, Athanasius says that it is the image of The Word that is impressed on us as “reasonable” creatures. Note that there remains a difference of degree. What is in The Son perfectly and infinitely is in us finitely.
This should indeed all be obvious given that Jesus as the only begotten son, tells us that if we have seen him, we have seen the Father[4] and Paul describes him as:
“15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.”[5]
Further, the writer to the Hebrews tells us:
“The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.[6]
Note that whilst this fact is true of The Son in eternity, Hebrews links it to his ascension in a particular way. If we have been adopted into God’s families, raised and seated with Christ then in some way, we share in that. Christ’s radiating of God’s glory is both true of his divine nature but also his human nature, this was the intention for humanity.
Embodied Spirits
Some theologians and philosophers have argued that humans are tripartite beings made up of body, spirit and soul due to those three words being applied to humans.[7]However, I think we need to be careful to consider how Biblical terminology works. When Scripture tells us to love God with our mind, heart and soul, it is not saying we are to love him in three different ways but rather the instruction in triplicate emphasises the importance of loving God, calling us to love him with all that we are.
Beyond the use of words, I don’t see anything in Scripture to suggest a distinction between soul and spirit. It is perhaps best to see these as different words used to describe the same thing but offering variety of vocabulary.
It is clear that we are not mere physical matter.[8] However, again, we are perhaps not meant to over distinguish between spirit and body, as though these two aspects of who are function in different zones. We are not able to dissect a person and identify the part of them that is their spirit. Rather, our spirit, the essence of who we are functions through our bodies. Though we will be absent from the body between death and resurrection[9] so that Letham talks about a dichotomy of “unity in duality”.[10] We are unified, holistic beings. For that reason, I consider it best to talk in terms of “embodied spirits.”
Equally male and female
Genesis 1:26-28 tells us that God made us male and female. This reflects the manner in which he had made all living creature and was crucial to the blessing and command to be fruitful and multiply. Genesis 2 tells how God made man first in his image but then stated that it was not good for man to be alone. This is the first identification of something “not good” and interrupts a flow that has described each aspect of creation as “good”. The “not good” here indicated incompleteness and so a lack of fitness for purpose rather than moral compromise. The complete creation of humanity requires male and female. God has not finished his work at this point.
Genesis 2 describes the woman as “like and opposite to” the man. This combination of equivalence and distinction suggests that men and women are meant to compliment one another. However, there is no indication of intended hierarchy at this point (noting that this is worthy of wider and more detailed discussion beyond the scope of this book). Men and women are made equal and this is reinforced by Peter’s identification of them as “co-heirs”. We are equal in redemption as well as creation. So, Letham summarises that “There is unity, equality and difference.”[11]
Made to worship
“The chief end of man is to glorify God and to enjoy him forever”[12]
So says the Shorter Catechism meaning that the goal or purpose of humanity is to give God glory. John Piper has pointed out that these two things, glory and enjoyment are identified as one end, not two.[13] In other words, this is a single purpose. So, he concludes, we glorify God by enjoying him. Indeed, we might also reverse that. We enjoy God by glorifying him.[14] We were made for God’s praise and glory. All of creation was made to glorify God. We do this by enjoying his blessings showered upon us[15] and together as the church, as he displays us to the cosmos and to the rulers and authorities in order that:
“the manifold wisdom of God should be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms.”[16]
This further develops what it means for us to be made in God’s image, we reflect his glory as we display His image.
Made to rule
In Genesis 1:28, we are told that when God blessed humanity, he told them:
“Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.’
The context of blessing helps us incidentally to think through what it means for us to have been blessed in Christ with “spiritual blessings”.[17] This is especially so because Ephesians 1 talks about our inheritance in Christ and states that we are seated with him. Being blessed is to do with being authorised to rule. This subduing and ruling is sometimes described in terms of exercising dominion though that language has now been taken over by Christian Nationalists through the concept of a Seven Mountain Mandate. However, if we are to consider what it means for us to rule, then we need to look at the nature of Christ’s dominion which is notihng to do with exploiting and overpowering.
Rule then, on behalf of God should be seen in terms of stewardship. We are to curate or cultivate creation. Our concern is that creation itself should enjoy the blessings that God has promised it. We serve God by caring for this world in order that creation is beautified, ordered and filled to bring greater glory to God. Our work is integral to our worship.
[1] Bavinck, Doctrine of God and Creation, 534.
[2] Bavinck, Doctrine of God and Creation, 534.
[3] Athanasius, On the Incarnation, 1.3.
[4] John 3:16, John 14:9.
[5] Colossians 1:15
[6] Hebrews 1:3.
[7] See Letham’s overview on this: Letham, Systematic Theology, 337-340.
[8] Some have reacted to Tri-partism with a form of monism in relation to human nature. See Letham, Systematic Theology, 341-342.
[9] 2 Corinthians 5:1-10.
[10] Letham, Systematic Theology, 342.
[11] Letham, Systematic Theology, 321.
[12] The Westminster Confession of Faith, Shorter Catechism, Q!.
[13] Piper, Desiring God, 24.
[14] Piper, Desiring God, 36.
[15] Ephesians 1:3-14.
[16] Ephesians 2:10.
[17] Ephesians 1:3.
